Aphasia is a condition in which an individual experiences an impairment or a loss of the ability to communicate by verbal speech or by writing, or has decreased ability to understand written or spoken language, due to a brain injury, illness or disease condition.
Many individuals afflicted by a brain injury, stroke, or other injury caused by external forces may suffer from aphasia. The partial or total inability to communicate through verbal speech or written language makes it difficult for professional caregivers and family members to ascertain the needs of the patient and to provide the appropriate care and assistance.
Depending upon the severity of the brain injury or disease, the ability of an individual to communicate to others may be at different levels. This is particularly important in a hospital setting or long-term care facility where there are many patients that are unable to verbally communicate with the health care providers and hospital staff, and many patients have different levels of verbal capability.
Another problem often encountered in a hospital setting relates to the treatment of patients who do not speak the language of the health care providers and hospital staff. The language barrier between the patient and the healthcare professional makes it difficult for the patient to communicate needs to the healthcare provider. Moreover, the language barrier makes it difficult for the healthcare provider to understand what the patient needs and to respond with the appropriate care.
A wide variety of augmentative and assistive communication devices have been developed for use by individuals having differing degrees of verbal communication skills.
A number of word and/or picture communication sheets, boards, and notebooks for use by individuals with limited verbal communication capabilities are commercially available from Interactive Therapeutics, Inc. (Stow, Ohio). A two-sided communication picture board is available under the trademark VISIBOARD. A four-sided picture communication board is commercially available from Interactive Therapeutics, Inc. under the trademark CRITICAL COMMUNICATOR, which includes basic care concepts and is intended to be used in a variety of patient care settings. However, none of the of the communication boards, sheets or notebooks generate a visually or audibly perceptible output in response to an input by the user.
A variety of augmentative communication devices are commercially available from Zygo Industries, Inc. (Portland, Oreg.). Hand-held, direct-selection, personal pen computer augmentative communication devices are commercially available from Zygo Industries, Inc. under the trademarks OPTIMIST and OPTIMIST II.
A number of portable, “text-to-speech” communication devices are also available from Zygo Industries, Inc. under the trademark LIGHTWRITER. The LIGHTWRITER communication devices include a keyboard and narrow display screen in the plane of the keyboard. For those individuals that do not have the motor capability to use a keyboard, scanning communication devices are also available. The LIGHTWRITER communication devices can be converted to scanning communication devices by connection a separate scanning module to the keyboard. The LIGHTWRITER communication devices, however, are limited to producing an output in response from an input received via the keyboard or by the scanning selection technique.
A foldable communication device including a keyboard, a display screen and a sound output means is available from Zygo Industries, Inc. under the trademark POLYANA II. Again, this device is limited to producing an output in response from an input received via the keyboard or by the scanning selection technique.
A number of augmentative communication devices are commercially available from Dynavox Systems, LLC (Pittsburgh, Pa.) under the trademarks DYNAVOX, DYNAMYTE and DYNAMO. These communication devices feature a dynamic touch screen display for activation by the user.
Nevertheless, there is still a need in the art for an easy to use, inexpensive, portable communication device that can be used by individuals with differing levels speech capability and motor skill capability, and for those individuals that speak only one language.